Who Needs Sleep Anyway?
by Aksannyi
Summary: Tony just got home from a case which took him away from his family, and he's trying to sleep. It doesn't exactly go as planned. Fluff, Tiva. Oneshot.


**Who Needs Sleep Anyway? (T/Z fluff)**

"Honey, your father is trying to sleep," Ziva murmured to their young daughter. Her bright brown eyes were shining as she continued to attempt to climb on her father's sleeping form.

"But he just got home!" she exclaimed, not deterred in the slightest. Tony was sprawled out on his back, his head leaning against his favorite pillow, and Tessa was doing her very best to snuggle up beside her father.

Ziva sat down on the bed beside her, intercepting her from crawling all over her father. He had already begun to snore, and Ziva hated to wake him from what was possibly the first night of sleep he'd had in a while. Even though, she surmised, it was afternoon.

Tessa was still wrapped up in Ziva's arms, her determination unwavering, as she struggled to wriggle free of her mother's grasp. "Mommy!" she giggled, and Tony twitched in his sleep.

"He's awake!" she cried, breaking free of Ziva's grasp and flinging herself at her father, who had most assuredly _not_ awakened. Tessa reached up to her father's face and scrunched his cheeks with her hands, manipulating his face and laughing at the results. Tony continued to snore, oblivious to his daughter's playing.

Ziva reached for her again, tugging lightly at her loose ponytail to pull her away from her father, but Tessa pulled her head away, leaving Ziva holding a hair tie as Tessa's light brown curls cascaded down her back.

She giggled again, triumphantly, as she realized she'd evaded her mother's grasp yet again. She sat on Tony's arm, leaning over his face and smushing his lips between her hands, mimicking talking in her father's voice.

"So good to see you, Tessy," she said in the deepest voice possible, then responded in her own high pitched giggly voice, "I missed you, daddy!" She changed pitch again to add, "Such a pretty girl," but before she could respond, Tony snaked his other arm around her, knocking her to her back and attacking her with tickles.

"Daddy!" she squealed. She _knew_ he was awake. "Daddy don't!" she giggled, wiggling to get away but trapped by her father's tickles.

"Who woke me up?" he asked, feigning anger, in the exaggerated way only a father could pull off.

Tessa squealed again, peals of laughter falling from her while he father continued to tickle her. "It was mommy!"

"Tessy," he admonished, bringing his face closer to hers to give her a kiss on the forehead, no longer tickling her. "I know it was you."

"Nuh-uh," she responded, "I told Mommy you were sleeping but she said, 'Go wake up Daddy!'"

Tony leaned in closer to his daughter to whisper in her ear, "Well I think Mommy told you to let me sleep, but _you_ were the one to come and wake me up."

Ziva was perched at the end of the bed, watching this interaction between father and daughter. She was certainly a daddy's girl, she thought, shaking her head. "Tessa," she warned, "tell the truth."

She pouted in response. "O-kay," she sang out, disappointed. "_I_ woke up daddy. But I missed daddy a lot and I wanted to see him!" She exclaimed as a protest.

"Well now you saw me, squirt," he responded.

"Do you hafta go back to sleep again?" she asked, disappointed. Tony looked at Ziva, her eyes softening at their daughter's question. Maybe he could stay up for a few more hours to spend time with Tessa. Ziva smiled slightly, knowing that Tony would do anything for their little princess.

"Naw, come on, we'll go to the park. Should we ask Mommy to come?" He asked conspiratorially. Tessa scrunched up her face and narrowed her eyes, as if she was deep in thought.

"Hmm …" she started, obviously pretending to think heavily. "Mommy can come too," she finally relented, and she jumped up, running out of the room to find her shoes.

Tony sat back on the bed, a sleepy smile on his face. "You know I can't resist her," he shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face.

"I know," she responded, the smile on her face widening as she leaned over to kiss him. "Come on, I'll let you buy us ice cream," she added, pulling him off the bed and toward the bedroom door.

"Anything you want," he responded. Honestly, who needed sleep anyway?


End file.
